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That One is For You Mr Buck!

This fixture would tell us more about ourselves than any other recent one.

We arrived at the Bridge having won six of our last seven in all competitions, including some credible wins – notably away at the Velodrome in the Champions League and at home versus Stoke last weekend.

Chelsea on their patch is a different proposition entirely, an impressive performance – be it win, lose or draw – may suggest (dare I say it) that we can still mount a credible title challenge. An unimpressive performance may have suggested our good recent run is a false dawn…

Even if we had gotten off to a great start this season and were sitting in the top three, we would likely have gone into this match as underdogs, so I would not have considered a loss as decisive – I was more interested in how we played and competed.

Thomas Vermaelen and Carl Jenkinson were back in the squad but had to settle for a place on the bench.

Prior to kickoff, we received confirmation that we will face unbeaten league leaders Manchester City at home in the Carling Cup quarterfinal tie. Piece of cake, eh?

The last time we won at the Bridge (late 2008), Robin scored twice as we rallied from 1-0 down to win 2-1 over a Drogba-less Chelsea side who arguably were trying to get Big Phil sacked. We lost each subsequent home/away/cup match to them until the 3-1 home win at the end of last season.

In last season’s 2-0 league loss here, we started quickly and had spurned two great early chances to score, so when Theo laid goals on a plate only for first Gervinho and then Robin to spurn, I feared the worst.

In the first move, Theo burst past a certain Cole as though the latter stood still and put a great low cross in for Gervinho to scuff wide, Theo then repeated the move, only for Robin to shin wide.

It was almost inevitable we would pay for not converting and the bill was presented a quarter of an hour in. Mata was afforded way too much time and space on the right and he put a great cross in for Lampard to beat Mertesacker and head home. Great cross that it was, Mertesacker should have done better to cut it out or at least put Lamps off.

For the next ten minutes, we gave as good as we got but were neither side were able to fashion any clear openings.

That changed on the half hour mark, as Chelsea should have made it 2-0, Lampard put Sturridge through on goal; with time to pick his shot, the latter sent a tame left foot shot wide with the entire goal at his mercy.

That was a huge miss, and we needed to make Chelsea pay for it and we only had to wait five minutes…

Ramsey started the move with a great through ball to Gervinho, who drew Cech and squared for Robin to equalize.

Within seconds, Sturridge thought he had restored Chelsea’s lead, but he was rightly ruled offside as he fired home…

Just as it looked we would go into the break even, Chelsea did regain the lead. Ramsey conceded a corner down the left, Lampard delivered it and Terry beat Mertesacker to the ball to bundle it home. It was a good finish from Terry but once again, the German was beaten easier than he should have.

Neither Arsene nor AVB made any halftime changes.

Robin worked Cech with an early shot, as we looked to make a quick response to Chelsea’s late goal. Throughout the first half, Boswinga had given Santos fits down the left. With three minutes gone, the roles were reversed, as our left back latched on to Gervinho pass, got free down the left and slid the ball through Cech’s legs for our second equalizer.

As with our first equalizer, Chelsea responded within a minute. On this occasion, Cole got free right outside our area and Szczesny rushed out and brought him down. It was clearly a foul, and the question was whether referee Marriner would deem Szczesny the last man – resulting in a sending off – or not.

Kos was covering on the other side of goal and appeared to have gotten far enough back to make himself the proverbial last man. So Marriner opted for a yellow and a free kick, much to our relief. Szczesny then produced a fine save, diving to his left to keep Lampard’s deep free-kick out…

Chelsea came again, this time Santos ended the attack with a great tackle on the edge of our box…

We then took the lead for the first time, ten minutes into the period, there appeared to be little on when Theo drove down the right with the ball. He checked inside and then slipped over about 30 yards from goal. Despite the presence of two defenders around him, he got up, collected the loose ball, went in alone on Cech and beat the Chelsea goalkeeper at his near post for our third of the afternoon.

We have had gotten plenty of criticism for defensive howlers over the past couple of seasons but I cannot recall too many instances where we simply gave up on a play, as Chelsea appeared to and let the opponent score. That is not, by the way, to diminish Theo’s effort and overall performance in any way. He has often played well against Chelsea, and today was no exception, certainly his best performance for several weeks.

We knew Chelsea would try and respond but we made the better chances, with Ramsey – having another great game – fashioning a good chance for himself but unable to apply the finish.

AVB then made his first change, replacing Sturridge with Malouda and then bringing Lukaku on for Ramires ten minutes later.

JD was the first Arsenal starter to make way, with Jenks replacing him on 75. AVB made his final change, Meireles for Obi-Mikel a minute later.

The changes were not immediately decisive, however, as we held firm at the back and defended well throughout the side and when conceding possession,we worked hard to either win the ball back, or cut Chelsea’s routes to goal off.

With just over 10 minutes to, Robin reacted angrily to an inadvertent-looking elbow as he and Ivanovic contested a high ball. Our captain appeared to shove the Chelsea defender as they walked up the pitch and Ivanovic collapsed, probably to get Marriner’s attention; the referee took note, spoke to both players and issued yellows to them both.

At the 80 minute mark, Rosicky came on for Theo and within a minute, Chelsea were level.

During the move, Lukaku clearly fouled Santos, pushing him off to retain possession, and feed Mata, who beat Szczesny with a wonderful curling strike from just outside the box…

So after going 3-2, we were pegged back again and with ten-plus minutes remaining, it was anyone’s game…

Arsene certainly thought the foul should have been called, giving fourth official Webb a prolonged “what for” on the sidelines…

Just as 3-3 full-time started to look likely, we regained the lead four minutes from the end of regulation.

Malouda actually started the move with a poor back pass which sold Terry short, the Chelsea skipper awkwardly slipped – similar to Theo earlier in the half – and Robin was on the ball in a flash, going in one-on-one with Cech.

The Chelsea keeper, probably anticipating Robin to shoot with his left foot, dived to his right; Robin simply checked on to his right foot, rounded Cech and stroked the ball into the empty net for his second and our second lead.

Arsene made his final change two minutes from time, replacing Gerv with TV.

We wrapped it up in the second minute of stoppage time, clearing a Chelsea corner for a four-on-two break. Rosicky waited for Robin then sent him clear down the left and our captain beat Cech at his near post (again!) for the hat trick.

Chelsea were finished and we saw out the remainder of the 4 minutes and 45 seconds stoppage time with no further trouble.

Our biggest test of this recent run turned into what was clearly our best sustained half of football, our biggest league win and our first away league win of the season. Perhaps it is a bit ironic that such a key victory was not rewarded with a rise in the standings: we started the match in seventh place and moved up to sixth at the final whistle but Liverpool’s win at the Hawthorns in the late kickoff moved us back down to seventh.

No matter, we are on the right track and if we keep playing like we did in the second half, we should be back in the top four sooner rather than later…

That is not to say, however, everything was perfect.

We were defensively shaky in the first half – particularly Mertesacker and Santos and we didn’t take all our chances.

Everything improved dramatically in the second half and that is a performance to build upon.

Robin will obviously get the plaudits for that hat trick but everyone contributed to this win. For me, other standouts were Theo, Ramsey, and Kos, with Gervinho and Arteta also having fine games.

Over 90 minutes, every team will make its share of mistakes – this was an afternoon where the good far outweighed the bad…

I will say – yet again – that we and the players can help ourselves by not getting too far ahead. Since the disastrous collapse at Ewood, we have steadily climbed the table, are topping our CL group and are into the Carling Cup quarterfinals. We clearly have momentum, we are getting some of our injured players back and our current players look to be getting more and more comfortable with each other’s games.

So let’s quietly continue doing this.

We are on our way back, which is evident and does not need saying. In fact, there is little that needs to be said. Let our actions on the pitch do the talking, and lets refrain from proclaiming what we are going to the do to this team or that team…

That is advice my compatriot and erstwhile Chelsea suit (Chairman) Bruce M. Buck would have done well to heed. On Thursday, discussing the club’s failed attempt to re-purchase the Stamford Bridge freehold, he told supporters to “get together and beat the crap out of Arsenal.” Our only response is to smile and point to the full-time scoreboard…

A final word on referee Andre Marriner. I thought he did a fine job this afternoon. He made some decisions which upset both sets of fans – notably Szczesny’s yellow instead of red and Lukaku’s foul on Santos in the build-up to Chelsea’s third goal.

Nevertheless, I felt he gave the players the benefit of the doubt on both occasions and I thought he was consistent in this respect. He kept his cards in his pocket for the most part and when tempers started to simmer a bit in the first half, he spoke to the players and calmed things down rather than flashing cards left, right and centre.

These are never easy fixtures to handle but I thought he and his crew did a great job, using restraint, common sense, and consistency.

So we head back home with a rather large scalp in our belt and a big away win over a credible opponent. Enjoy this now but don’t forget we are back to work on Tuesday, with our home tie versus Marseille. Win that one and we are just about into the Champions League group stages. Then we have a West Brom side at home on Saturday – a side that took four points from us last season. We can ill afford to spend too much time patting ourselves on the back over today’s result.

Neither should we dismiss it as just another win, yesterday’s result is a signature win and tangible evidence that we have turned a corner and heading in the right direction. This should show us that we need not fear anyone, so long as our attitude and application are right.

If we continue to play as we have today, we will win far more than we lose, and we have a real chance of turning this into a pretty memorable season.

So let’s celebrate a great win, and then get back to work, all teams are only as good as the last result, and – for better or for worse – we are certainly no exception to that…

rico

Nedox

rico

October 30, 2011 at 9:07am

Hi Nedox,

maybe, but we still need to defend better to get there… But, we are getting there – still believe that if we are in the top 4/5 at the end of the year, Wenger needs to buy 1 or 2 players in the jan window, just to give us a bit more in the last few months when we all too often fade…..

rico

agirlagunner

October 30, 2011 at 9:22am

Great match report, oliver! I quite agree that this is not just another win. I’m sure it will do wonders for the team’s collective confidence. Fantastic game, and truly a second half any supporter would be proud of.

agirlagunner

Nedox

October 30, 2011 at 9:30am

Hey Rico! Nice post Oliver!

I was literally pissin in me pants when they scored their 1st cos they were at our side backs at will, getting past them and all. Though we showed character and ‘mental strenf’ to be able to pick up and do a job…havent being happier in the recent past!

This is certainly not a one man team as the commentator pointed..i mean Robin(de god) scored easy and tap-ins today. Godd win all in all. #GOON ARMY!

Nedox

arsenal fan

October 30, 2011 at 10:06am

great post!!! however defensively we looked bad the 1st 3 mins were horrible defensively,djourou n santos were very poor in the first half…but the second half both were better..hopefully it continues..with the likes of tv5,jack and sagna n even diaby…hopefully we will surely come in the top 4..

agirlagunner

Arsenal fan; JD settled not too long after. And Santos screwed his head on properly in the second half. Theo skinned Cashley a fair number of times; RvP left JT munching on grass; and Torres was nullified by Koz. Not bad for a day’s work. 😉

devilgunner

October 30, 2011 at 10:16am

Great post in the same manner as the win was yesterday Oliver.

Good morning guys and chicks. I have started the bragging rights this morning with a couple of my players who are chav supporters. I got joined in by the rest of the team so it was enjoyable and it got better since we rounded on Internazionale FC fans who also lost yesterday and are lying 3rd from bottom.

Heard that JT is still picking his nose to get out some grass, but a weed or two keep SLIPPING from his finger.

neil

October 30, 2011 at 10:31am

Hi everyone, the posters question from Nedox prompted me to pass on a tip reference all of you with the official arsenal calendar.
For nearly all October I have had Clichy, albeit with two black eyes and other facial defects,staring from my wall. On checking November things got no better with sly Samir on view. On returning from my sunday morning run my wife had neatly cut away the photos, leaving the dates on the right hand side still showing, and with a much more pleasing image intended for December on view.
Cheers Gooners.

stevepalmer1

October 30, 2011 at 11:14am

Morning all,
Very good post Oliver, detailed as usual. Yes we made some mistakes as you pointed out but i agree with you that the good far outweighed the. bad. As far as the CC is concerned we knew it would be one of the Manchester sides so no surprise there, what will Wenger do now, will he keep to his younger newcomers or will he honestly challenge on all fronts, personally i believe we can beat City, but we have to field our best team, any less will see our exit. Chelsea’s defeat was a corner stone for us we proved that with teamwork and hardwork that we can give as good as we get, but its horses for courses and we must plan each and every game as it comes, Its time for Wenger to change certain ways to give us our best chance of victory

TT

I keep checking the scoreline! Kinda hard to believe that we won 5 – 3

Kozzer was the man of the match for me in the light of a shocking defending for both teams he was the only defender on the pitch that did his job to perfection and that’s why we won!

What we need now is to add another defender that plays either left or right back and Mvila in January. Forget about Hazard or Gotze until next summer unless we can pry them away from their clubs early in January. Its the defense we need to fix though not the attack

Essien isaac

Micko

October 30, 2011 at 12:07pm

Not a bad write up oliver,
Fantastic result yesterday, hope that doesn’t turn out to be the highlight of the season though, our next 4 or 5 games are all winnable, hopefully that game will go on to be the catalyst.

Who would have thought that it would have taken until the end of october before we got our first away win in the league, it was worth the wait.
The defense was shocking again yesterday, something has to be done about it, it looks as though the halftime talk worked, we need to get back to keeping clean sheets or we’ll just end up throwing games away.

Osi

October 30, 2011 at 12:57pm

hi all morning, evening, afternoon wherever you are. So happy we come back to life. The team is buzzing, suddenly everyone is playing a strong game and we’re rewarded.

I saw the sign of the old effective Arsenal team; defending as a group and attacking as a group. We also blamed individual defenders for lack of defending skills but you can’t defend wavy attacks with 4 players. Chelsea attack in numbers in the first 15 minutes and outnumbered our defenders and the outcome would have been more devastating had they score the opportunities they created. We can blame Santos, Dj, Mert and justifiably so as they made silly mistakes. However, when a team attacks in numbers it can make the defenders more prone to errors.

In the second half we demonstrated how effective our defense can be if the whole team defend when they loose possession.

TT

devilgunner

October 30, 2011 at 1:56pm

Seems as if Yossi Benayoun has thrown a punch to the chavs and maybe secured a permanent place to AFC. He tweeted that yesterday’s win was great and congratulated the guys on a superb performance. The chavs supporters did not like it though and have bombarded him on twitter. Arsenal supporters jumped to his defence. Come on Yossi…….show them you’re a gunner.

Micko

agirlagunner

October 30, 2011 at 3:34pm

oliver, Theo on growing confidence and perhaps, a greater sense of accountability:

‘When you’re confident you think you can do anything,’ Walcott said. ‘I managed to lose my balance but get up quite quickly. If I hadn’t scored Aaron (Ramsey) would have killed me because he was free.’

Good on you, Theo; now go deliver those types of crosses for the rest of the season!

Joaquim Moreira

October 30, 2011 at 3:38pm

good morning!
The change of tactics available to the range was very important in the course of the game. Chelsea can no longer play for the side where he had a clear advantage, and now had to play over the middle, almost in a “pyramid”. This only benefited us: DJ, because her problem was the speed and position and feels much more comfortable playing in central defense, Santos, because it is very strong in one to one and lose speed. Hence AVB, have replaced Sturridge no longer has any influence on the game and Forest have started to play more by the center.
Rico: we will need two midfield players at least. Arteta, Ramsey and Rosicky can not stand all the time. Diaby has to go quickly. We have Song, Fripong and Coquelin. After demanding for two positions, we have only 4 players. It is little and short.

allezkev

agirlagunner

October 30, 2011 at 3:57pm

Hey, goonster. Painted the town red and white, I imagine??

Hello, AK. I am sure I don’t agree with the conclusion; but Kozzer was super last night. I hope he continues to play even when TV returns; he was the only one of eight defenders on the pitch yesterday who wasn’t trying to be a striker. 😉

Micko

Joaquim Moreira

allezkev

October 30, 2011 at 4:09pm

Afternoon Mick. That Mr Renoog does some quality videos, with some great music.
Why doesn’t the club produce half-time entertainment like that, instead of Gunnersaurus chucking a few tatty t-shirts into the crowd.
They don’t have a clue how to sell themselves or to motivate the fans.
Take that stupid Elvis track they play before the players come out?
Do me an effin favour…..

Micko

October 30, 2011 at 4:17pm

Kev, you got it lucky mate, its got to the point now where i gotta duck when i see gunnersauras coming or there’s a good chance he’ll give me a pat on the head and there’s no way thats going out on MOTD !
As for the elvis tune don’t get me started !
I always go for a swift half at half time to calm the nerves.

allezkev

rico

allezkev

October 30, 2011 at 6:16pm

JM i have seen better Tottenham teams than the one they currantly have.
But they have failed to win the League because the Scummers are a cup-team.
Always have been.
Always will be.
It’s not in their DNA to win leagues.
1961 was a fluke. 1951 was a poor, very poor year.
Now off to bed for you, with no supper for being such a naughty boy….. 😉

rico

allezkev

October 30, 2011 at 7:08pm

Interesting point that Rico.
I did hear someone comment that Chelsea ran out of puff after going thru extra-time in the Carling Cup.
Not sure it was a massive reason why Arsenal took em out, but it must have helped.
We play Marseilles Tuesday. Not a lot of recovery time…

rico

devilgunner

October 30, 2011 at 7:26pm

If Bale and/or VDV get injured I can assure you they will go down the table quicker than a stone in the water. Modric was poor today and had it not been for Bale’s lungs and tenacity it could have easily been a draw or loss for the tits, erm sorry tots. Dont know but the scum have been reminding me of AGAG these last few minutes. I wonder why????

devilgunner

allezkev

October 30, 2011 at 7:48pm

Just read that about Hansen…..
Nice to know where my License Fee money is going.
Value for money? No… Not in my opinion.
There are plenty of ex-footballers, out there, who would do it for 25% of what the BBC pay Hansen.
Shearer is also mind numbingly dull.